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Open access scientific publishing efforts such as PLoS have been acclaimed in recent years, but there is also an increase in journals that publish articles based on payment rather than peer-reviewed quality, according to this article. "Most people don't know the journal universe. They will not know from a journal's title if it is for real or not," said Dr. Steven Goodman, a dean and professor of medicine at Stanford University.

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IBM researchers have fabricated a radio-frequency integrated circuit that has graphene field-effect transistors atop complementary metal-oxide semiconductor circuitry. The test chip was able to transmit data at 20 megabits per second. "One can envision that high-performance graphene radio-frequency circuits will be directly built on top of high-density silicon CMOS logic circuits to form an extremely low-cost, ultra-compact communication system," the researchers wrote in a paper published in the Nature Communications journal.

An expert witness in a medical-malpractice case would have to be someone practicing in the same field as the defendant doctor they are testifying against under legislation approved by the Florida Senate. The bill also would enable a health care provider acting as a witness to provide a patient's treatment information to attorneys.

Researchers have developed food-safe silica nanoparticles with cell lytic enzymes used to kill listeria bacteria, which they say could replace antibiotics and chemicals. In the method developed by researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, nanoparticles are coated with the enzymes, which kill listeria on contact but do no harm to other bacteria.

The Reproducibility Initiative by Science Exchange will choose a lab to repeat the studies of scientists who want to confirm their findings. The project arose after numerous reports of studies whose results could not be replicated. The lab for the original study will pay the second lab and both will publish a paper in the journal PLoS One, with a certificate being issued if the results are confirmed.

A study by Japanese scientists found high levels of bisphenol A in 200 test sites along the shorelines of 20 countries in North America and Southeast Asia. Steve Hentges, a spokesman for the American Chemistry Council, voiced skepticism of the study findings, which was not published in a peer-reviewed journal. "Quite a few studies from other researchers have been published with data on BPA in seawater, freshwater and sediment. None of these researchers have reported BPA at levels even remotely close to what is claimed by the Japanese researchers. The extensive data on BPA that has been published indicates that BPA, if found at all, is present in the environment only at very low trace levels," Hentges said.